Children of Thalidomide
by Parsley the Lion
Summary: Magneto’s up to his old tricks, experimenting on mutant kids, with some unexpected results for his latest test subject Toad. What happens when the rest of the Brotherhood find out about these secret tests done in the dead of night? How will they react?
1. Prologue: Midnight Visitor

Children of Thalidomide

...

I have been listening to way too much Billy Joel, though the reference is also still fairly valid and makes sense to me, if not to anyone else.

Disclaimer: I don't own X-men Evolution or any other incarnation thereof. Disney does, because Disney owns everything, including Marvel and your souls. This stands for all following chapters also.

...

Prologue: Midnight Visitor

...

Todd Tolensky lay quietly in the dark, staring at the ceiling. He listened to the noises of the Brotherhood household at night and sighed. He could hear Lance snoring softly along the hall, Pietro talking in his sleep – something about a pink lampshade? – and Freddy sounding like a broken dishwasher full of rocks. He could hear the sound of the dripping faucet in the bathroom and the wind blowing the curtains through the boarded up kitchen window. The sounds of an old, run-down house settling around him. These sounds were comforting, normal. He smiled softly and started to drift off to sleep, it was well past 1am and they had school tomorrow. Maybe he wouldn't come tonight.

Then he heard the squeak of the front door opening and closing softly; his body tensed. Of course he would come. The absence of Wanda's fitful tossing and turning would see to that. He had never once visited whilst she was living there. That's why Toad had chased her around so much, willing to let his sweetie pie throw him through any amount of walls and panes of glass she wanted. She was his knight in shining armour; the one who kept the big bad wolf at bay. But she wasn't there to protect him anymore. She'd been gone about a week and this was the first 'visit' since she'd run off to wherever the hell she'd gone off to this time. The pattern was always the same. Whilst Scarlet Witch was there, he stayed away; as soon as she left, he came back and as soon as she came back, he'd go away. Maybe if he just pretended to be asleep he'd just go away...

He heard the swish of a cape and a shadow fell over his small body as he lay, eyes closed, in his collapsing bed that was propped up by his school books; hey, not like he ever used them anyway. He lay there for a few heartbeats before he heard the clearing of a rather masculine, rather annoyed throat beside him. It had never worked before, so why would it work now? He opened his eyes and sat up, dropping the covers, a flimsy shield against the cold. He swung his thin, bowed legs out of the bed and touched the floor with his bare feet. He shivered and not just from the sudden contact with the hardwood floor. Todd stood up a silently followed Magneto out the door, making sure not to step on the creaky stairs as the tall man hovered above the floor just a few paces in front of him.

Toad had been the first member of the Brotherhood and these late night encounters had been going on since day one. He wondered briefly if one of the others had joined first, would it still have been him receiving this midnight guest, would it have been someone else instead? Or would it not have made a bit of difference? He'd tried to tell Mystique a few times at first, but she hadn't wanted to know. But Magneto had found out and been so frighteningly mad that Todd had given up. He'd even almost let it slip to Freddy once, but he was worried that'd put his best friend in danger too, so he'd kept quiet. He bit his lip and followed Magneto outside to the waiting car. Getting in, he worried his lip between his teeth and shrugged to himself. There was no use wondering. He _was_ the first BOM member and he _was_ the one that Magneto had decided to experiment on. Nothing could change that, no matter how much he wanted it to stop. If it wasn't him, then it would be one of the Brotherhood, his friends, his family. His brothers.

He lay back on the steel gurney and squeezed his eyes tight shut, worrying his lip some more. It was getting to be a habit. Todd tasted blood in his mouth as he bit back a sob and bit down too hard on the already chewed lip as Magneto stuck him with yet another needle. It never got any less nippy, but he should've been more used to it by now. It wasn't even the first one that night. He hated how he could feel the cold liquid squeezing into his arms, travelling through his veins, it made his skin crawl. It wasn't as if he willingly participated in these experiments, but, what else could he do but let Magneto do whatever he wanted? It wasn't right and it wasn't fair, but that was the situation he was in and he was dealing with it the best that he could.

"All done, Victor will take you back now," said Magneto in a brusque, businesslike tone, "Make sure to get some sleep, you have school tomorrow."

Toad offered a weak "Yo, bossman," and hopped off the examination table. It had been a long night and it was going to be an even longer day.


	2. Chapter 1: Somnambulant

Children of Thalidomide

...

Chapter 1: Somnambulant

...

Todd Tolensky was asleep face first on his desk in a puddle of his own slimy drool. He'd actually done pretty well, considering, and stayed awake until halfway through the last period before lunch. The considering being that by the time Sabertooth had dropped him back at the Brotherhood house and he'd got to bed without waking anyone else up, it had gone half four in the morning and he hadn't actually got to sleep for at least an hour after that. Of course the teacher didn't quite see it that way.

"Tolensky!" screamed Mr. Peterson, thumping a rolled up textbook down next to Toad's head. On the side devoid of drool of course, "Is my class boring you, by any chance? Hmm."

"Whuh, yo?" he blinked sleepily, slowly pulling his face away from the desk, a trail of slime still attached, "Is it time for the elephant derby?", he asked disorientated. This was accompanied by tittering and cries of "Eww, gross!" by turns from the rest of the class.

"Out Mr. Tolensky!" the chemistry teacher screamed, ripping a pink detention slip from a pad on his desk, "I think you know where you're going. Now clean up this mess!"

"Not fair, yo," he mumbled, wiping the offending desk with his sleeve (once again getting cries of "Yuck" from his more sensitive classmates), shouldering his backpack and swiping the detention slip as he passed. He crumpled it in his palm and kicked the door open, stomping out of the classroom; no intention of going to detention... except that today was not going to be a good day.

"Tolensky, where do you think you are going?" asked a snide voice.

_Damn_, he thought, Principal Kelly was on the prowl for delinquents and dodgers, _so not fair_. "Lunchtime detention, sir," he answered, holding up the scrunched up paper for Kelly to see.

"You weren't, of course, thinking of not going, of skipping out on detention, were you boy?" Kelly sneered.

"Of course not, sir," Todd replied innocently as if that hadn't been exactly what he was about to do. He knew where this was headed, _so not fair_.

"Well then, you won't mind if I accompany you to detention, then, will you?"

"Of course not Principal Kelly," he replied through gritted teeth.

_Man_, it was meatballs today as well...

Of course, within about ten minutes of putting his feet up on the desk, Toad was snoring lightly, head thrown back and leaning dangerously in his chair. Not that anyone noticed or cared here. There were only two other kids that'd bothered to show up; one was asleep, face hidden by her crossed arms on her desk, the other ripping pages out of his maths book to make paper aeroplanes and throwing them out of the window. The teacher was reading a newspaper and not paying the least bit of attention. She was here as a punishment from Principal Kelly and she didn't care in the least whether the students were there or not, let alone awake.

...

"...it was just soooo gross, like, really icky," said Kitty Pryde, gesturing with her spoon as she described Toad's earlier disgrace to her less than interested friends.

"Kitteh, we are tryin' to eat here," sighed the gothic beauty Rogue, pushing away her tray, "You talkin' about slime is puttin' meh off ma lunch."

"Ya, I agree with mein swiester, we do not vant to hear of Toad at ze lunch table," said Kurt, taking Rouge's discarded tray and snarfing down the rest of her lunch. Nothing could put a damper on the fuzzy man's appetite. Not even talk of slime.

"What's so remarkable about Toad sleepin' in class anyhow?" the southern girl rolled her a's like Rahne rolled her r's, "He does it all the time."

...

The ringing of the bell that signalled the end of lunch and the start of, for Toad at least, English period startled him awake so abruptly that he toppled sideway out of his seat with a loud crash. "Ouch," he moaned, rubbing his sore head, which he'd banged on the desk as he'd fallen and wincing at where he'd landed on his needle-marked arm; he hoped it wouldn't start bleeding again. No, it was not a good day for Todd Tolensky. He grumbled as he righted himself and grabbed his book bag. Stomping out of the detention room, he kicked yet another innocent door and entered the stream of students, headed for his next class. He wanted to skip and just go to bed, but he'd promised Lance that he'd make an effort not to get in trouble; they all had, even Pietro. Their leader was not going to be happy about his earlier detention. Surely sleeping in class was better than skipping it though. At least it meant he was actually in class. He stifled a yawn.

"Where were you at lunch Toadie?" asked Pietro so fast that if you weren't used to deciphering his speech patterns you'd be utterly lost. The teacher hadn't turned up yet, so the class was chatting amongst itself.

"Detention," he grumbled, rubbing his nose sleepily and stifling another yawn.

"What for?" the speed demon shot out quickly.

"Sleeping in class..." he trailed off, resting his weary head on his crossed arms. He began to snore. Pietro threw an eraser at his head, "Five more minutes, yo..." he mumbled, glaring sleepily at Pietro.

"Whatever man, just don't say I didn't try n help ya out, bud."

"Mmnf," Toad threw the eraser back at Quicksilver, who caught it skilfully.

...

"Two detentions in one day?!" the ground rumbled slightly as Avalanche yelled at the skinny boy angrily, "This is what you call 'keeping out of trouble'?!"

"Chill out man," yawned Toad, "It's not like I asked for it."

"He fell asleep in English, three times, and that was after he got yelled at for, you guessed it, falling asleep in class," Ah, Pietro, the prince of making things worse... why not add some more fuel to the fire? Maybe rub some salt in the wound? Here we go, "And that's after I overheard your Pretty Kitty and the X-geeks talking about him falling asleep in Chemistry!" he crowed, zooming off to watch Lance's imminent aneurism from a safe distance.

"WHAT?!" the shaking grew much worse; the vein in Lance's temple throbbed alarmingly.

"Whatever, yo," shrugged Toad, his stomach had been hurting since last period, he felt nauseous and his head felt like it was going to explode. He was just so darn tired today... "I'm gonna go catch some zees." He slouched up the stairs.

For Lance, that was the last straw, his eyes rolled back into his head and the Brotherhood Boarding House shook violently. Outside three roof tiles narrowly missed Freddy as he trundled home from school. "Hey!"

...

Toad lay awake that night. No matter how tired or ill, or how fast asleep he was; he always woke up at the stroke of midnight exactly. Magneto always turned up at some point after that. The waiting was the worst. Not knowing when or if the master of magnetism would show up to inject him with something new or take some blood or run some tests or spirit him away to some unknown destination or even to operate. Todd never knew what to expect and it always scared him. Magneto didn't come every night, but sometimes the nights he didn't come were worse than the nights he did. At least he knew where he stood then; the endless waiting, the not knowing. It scared him more than the needles, more than the probes, maybe not more than the occasionally invasive and dangerous surgery, but it still scared him witless. His stomach still felt really weird and he still felt sick. He wondered if it was nerves, a side effect of whatever last night's experiment had been, or just a bug.

He kicked his covers off and rolled onto his side. He was much too warm, maybe he was feverish? His throat felt dry and scratchy, as if he'd been screaming, but he hadn't. Maybe a drink of water would make him feel better. Todd sat up, the movement made him dizzy, his head swam and his vision blurred as he tried to stand up. He felt rotten, worse than he'd ever felt before. Lurching unevenly, he made it to the door, panting he clung to the wall as if his life depended on it. Which for all he knew, it might. He tried calling for help, but all that came out was a stifled groan, he lurched forward. Thankfully he made it to the bathroom before throwing up violently into the toilet. He hadn't eaten all day so it was mostly bile and stomach acid. He continued to heave and retch even after his belly was empty and the only thing he was coughing up was slime.

The bathroom light clicked on, a hand touched his back and started rubbing in a soothing pattern up his spine, "Hey kiddo, heard you making a call on the porcelain telephone... sorry I yelled at you earlier, didn't know you were sick." It was Lance. His voice was soft as he made soothing noises to accompany his hand movements. When Toad was done heaving, he handed to younger boy some loo roll, which he took gratefully and wiped his mouth. Lance smoothed the damp hair out of his eyes and flushed the toilet. He handed Todd a glass of water and told him to drink as much of it as he could, even if it made him throw up again. He'd feel better for it Lance assured him.

It did make him sick again, but he didn't really feel any better for it. Lance waited patiently with him and rubbed his back as he emptied his sore belly once again. When he was done, Lance got him to rinse his mouth and clean his teeth, then led him back to bed, tucking him in with a towel and a bucket, just in case. "Don't worry, kid, I'll wait right here 'til you fall asleep." And he did.

There would be no experiments tonight...


	3. Chapter 2: I Saw Red

Children of Thalidomide

Chapter title taken from a song of the same name by Warrant; look it up, it's really good and relevant to this story.

...

Chapter 2: I Saw Red

...

Todd Tolansky looked like death warmed over when he stumbled out of bed early the next morning. He looked even less well than he had last night and, to be perfectly honest, he felt even worse than he looked. All his limbs ached and he had a splitting headache, his stomach rolled with every step he took and his throat felt raw. Whilst he felt sick, he at least didn't feel like he was going to be sick, which was a slight improvement. He was sweaty, feverish and his temperature was well above normal for a hot-blooded non-part amphibian, which, obviously meant that it was way, way, way above normal for Toad. His chest rattled when he breathed, which was painful to do, and he felt a desperate urge to cough, but couldn't quite manage it. He should not have been out of bed, but he really, really needed to pee and, whilst there was the bucket, there wasn't much option but to drag himself weakly to the bathroom.

Of course one bathroom between four or more teenagers – particularly when one of those teenagers was Pietro – was never a good idea. The door was locked and he could hear water running (not good for his bladder) the speed demon singing an old Patti Page number (not good for his ears, the tempo was way off). One area in which Quicksilver did not live up to his name was his use of the bathroom. Toad banged ineffectually on the door, too weak to make a decently audible noise. He wheezed unhappily and knocked as hard as he could, but to no avail. He started to cry, even though he couldn't figure out why. Luckily Lance chose that moment to come check on him.

"Pietro, get your ass out of that bathroom before I kick down this damn door!" he yelled, banging loudly and shaking the ground a little for emphasis. Toad squeaked and pitched sideways, too wobbly to stay upright himself; Lance, caught him and stopped his mini-earthquake, "Sorry, Toad."

"Bite me!" came the reply, the running water continued and Toad whimpered.

"I mean it, Maximoff, get a move on or kick the shit out of this door, in three, two, o..."

"Fine!" Pietro slammed the door open, ticked off and wearing nothing but a towel and a scowl, "What is your problem anyway, Alvers?"

Lance just growled and pushed past Pietro, still holding Toad upright, "You gonna be OK? I'll be right outside it you need any help." Toad just nodded as Lance closed the door, but didn't lock it and faced a now fully clothed Pietro.

"What's wrong with him?" there was a note of genuine worry for once. Pietro could be a bit of a selfish dick sometimes, but wasn't entirely without feeling towards the other members of the BOM, they were his family after all. Sort of anyway.

"Dunno, poor kid was up all night puking his guts out," he shrugged, they heard the toilet flush and Lance opened the door, letting Toad stumble out and back across to his room. Pietro just looked at Lance, "Shit man, you're right."

"Look, obviously he can't go to school today and he definitely shouldn't be left on his own, so, much as I hate it, you're gonna have to drive yourself and Fred in today. Here," he held out the keys to his jeep reluctantly, "Just don't put a scratch or a dent on my baby or I will kill you."

"Shit, Toadie must be really sick if you're willing to let me drive your car," he snatched the keys before Lance could change his mind, "Laters. FRED, time to go, you snooze you lose, I'm driving off right now without ya if ya don't come now!"

"OK, OK, I'm comin' already," the big man grumbled, "How come Lance ain't driving?"

"Toad's sick, Lance is playing housemother, c'mon, c'mon!"

"I am gonna regret this..." sighed Lance as he watched the two leave for school.

...

"Lance," whimpered Toad, still quite tearful, "Lance it hurts to pee... I mean it feels wrong."

"Oh, kid," he said, sitting on the bed next to the delirious boy, his weight comforting against Toad's side as he was racked with a coughing fit. Lance reached out and touched his friend's clammy face tenderly. His heartstrings tugging at the sight of the small boy so ill, so out of it, "It's OK, it'll be OK." He didn't know if he was reassuring himself or Toad. They definitely needed to get him to a doctor, but they just as definitely couldn't afford one. He'd have to wait until Pietro got back to ask him if he knew where Magneto was, that bastard owed them more than one; getting a doctor for Toad was the least he could do. And if not, though he hated to admit it, there was always the X-men... though only as an absolute last resort.

"Lance."

"Yeah kid?"

"Lance, I don't want to do any more experiments," Toad said, reaching for something that wasn't there, his sleeve slipping down as he let his arm drop onto the covers and fell into a fitful sleep.

"What?" It was then that Lance saw the puncture wounds and fine scars on Toad's wrist and the house started to shake. There was only one person who could've done something like that to Toad without anyone finding out and he was willing to bet that those weren't the worst of his scars and injuries. He was going to kill that bastard Magneto when he found him.

...

"Hey, Pietro, like, where's Lance today? I haven't seen him at all, is he skipping classes again?" asked Kitty. She'd cornered him at lunchtime.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" he smirked, zipping around the room.

"Well, duh, why else would I ask you?" she rolled her eyes.

Luckily for her, he wasn't really in the mood for playing games today, he was worried about Toad, no matter what most people might think of him and Fred had been asking a lot of questions about his 'little brother' that Pietro didn't know the answers to. They were both worried and neither of them could concentrate. Not that either of them were good at concentrating at the best of times, but still.

"Actually he's gone all Florence Nightingale on us and is taking care of poor ickle Toadie-wodie who's sick in bed right now," he mocked, "The Blob and I are probably gonna cut out to see how they're doing if you wanna come see Lancey-wance laying on hands and being all capable and paternal."

"Ugh, you're impossible, no thanks," she stomped off.

...

Toad was burning up and Lance was really worried, he needed to cool him down much faster than just mopping his forehead with a damp cloth. Plus, just minutes ago he'd thrown up dramatically all over himself. Lance sighed and started to run a lukewarm bath whilst still keeping an eye on his friend. If this is what parents had to deal with when their kid was sick, this constant, gnawing worry, he'd never have kids. He sighed and leaned against the bathroom door. Shit, he really was going to have to get the X-geeks involved, there was no way he was having anything to do with Magneto now, for all he knew, he could've been the one who made Toad sick in the first place. It made his blood boil. The bath was full and he turned off the stiff, slightly rusty taps, the muscles in his forearms straining.

"OK Toad, bath time, kid." Toad nodded weakly and tried to sit up, "Stay where you are Toad, no walking, doctor's orders." He picked the sick-covered boy up bridal style and almost gasped in shock at the weight of him, or lack thereof. Christ, he was feather light. Toad's arms snaked around Lance's neck for balance and he grinned weakly, allowing Lance to carry him across the hall to the bathroom. Toad's lack of personal hygiene was legendary, so the fact that he was meekly allowing anyone to bathe him without any sort of fight or protest was testament to how sick he was. Mind you, very few people, no matter how shower shy or dirty, liked being covered in vomit. Lance set the tiny waif down on the bath mat and instructed him to lift his arms. Toad complied weakly and Lance removed his pyjama shirt with some difficulty as it was sticking to the poor boy's skin with perspiration. A sharp intake of breath as Lance noted the network of fine and not so fine scars all over Toad's torso. He was so angry that the water in the bath began to do that juddering, pooling thing that announces an oncoming earthquake, or dinosaur like in Jurassic Park.

Toad touched his arm and Lance calmed down a bit. Lance stood up, taking Toad with him and placed him tenderly in the lukewarm water. He was very gentle as he washed Toad's thin frame, gods he knew none of them exactly ate properly, but to get this thin, geez. Did the kid live on nothing but flies and stolen cafeteria leftovers or something? Secretly Lance knew the answer was yes. When he was satisfied that Toad was sufficiently clean and fresh he grabbed a towel and picked up the half-asleep boy (having your hair washed by someone else can be very soothing and Lance's ministrations had lulled the boy to sleep), wrapping him in the towel and drying him off the best he could, "Sorry buddy, gonna hafta see you naked, can't have you getting more sick from sitting around in wet clothes, out you get."

Lance Alvers was in for the shock of his life when he removed the damp pyjama bottoms from his friend. "What the shit?!"


	4. Chapter 3: The Bitter Pill

Children of Thalidomide

Chapter title taken from a song of the same name by Warrant; look it up, it's really good and relevant to this story.

...

Chapter 3: The Bitter Pill

...

Todd Tolansky was fast asleep, still feverish, but safely tucked up in fresh, clean pyjamas and covers (well clean-ish) in Lance's bed since he hadn't had time to change Toad's sheets. Especially as the older teen was panicking and pacing. He didn't have the first clue as to what to do. Shit, he was definitely going to have to involve the X-men now. Shit, fuck, bugger, balls! How could he possibly approach the situation? He was caught somewhere between a rock and a hard place; the rock being blind panic and the hard place being boiling rage. This was such an unfair situation to put anyone in, let alone a couple of teenage boys. Fucking hell, what was he going to do? He was so close to hyperventilating it was unreal. He was going to fucking murder Magneto when he got his hands on the bastard.

He was saved from his mounting panic by the sound of an engine; a specific engine, his baby's engine. Thank god Pietro and Freddy had decided to skip. Normally he'd be angry at them, but this time he was so glad that they had. He needed some support in getting help for Toad from the X-men and with breaking the news of Toad's unusual symptoms to them; with breaking the news to Toad, hell even with breaking the news to himself. Of course he'd have to tell them first, shit how was he going to do that again?

"Hey Alvers, how's the squirt?" asked Pietro.

"Can I see him?" asked Fred, worry on his round face, lip wobbling a little.

"I think we need to let him sleep for bit, Fred," said Lance tiredly, patting the big guy's arm, "C'mon lets go sit in the living room. I need to tell you something."

They moved from the cramped kitchen and sat down; Blob on the sofa, wringing his hands, Lance in the armchair and Pietro half on and half off the window ledge, anxious, antsy.

"We really need to get him to a doctor and fast-, " started Lance before he was interrupted by a worried Pietro, "He's not gonna die is he?"

"No, Toadie!" wailed Fred, distraught at the idea, big, wet tears rolling down his large cheeks.

"Calm down Fred, he's not dying, at least I don't think so, look we need to get help though, 'cos what's happening to him ain't good and he needs to see a doctor or he might die, oh I dunno. I think we gotta ask the X-geeks for help this time..."

"No way, we can ask my dad," stated Pietro, "I'm sure he'll help, we are not going to the X-geeks!"

Lance's eyes were as steely as his voice when he replied, "That man is not going anywhere near Toad. Who else could have done this to him without any of us knowing about it? That sick fuck has been performing experiments again and he's been using Toad as lab rat!"

"What the hell are you talking about Alvers?!"

"Toad's turning into a girl," whispered Lance, terrified.

"WHAT?!" screamed Pietro.

"Yeah, maybe we should go to the X-geeks this time," he smiled lopsidedly, trust Freddy to be so accepting of this fucked up situation.

"Bu-bu-but the-," Pietro was cut off by the sound of Toad screaming from upstairs.

Pietro was the first to get there, but panic and adrenaline lends speed and Lance and Fred weren't far behind. What they found was Toad screaming and having a fit. It was frightening to watch. Lance grabbed Toad, blankets and all and ran downstairs towards the car, Fred following close behind; Pietro was already in the jeep with the keys in the ignition, ready to go. Lance jumped in, handling Toad's convulsing body with the greatest care. Fred got in the car and Lance said just two words to Pietro, "Book it!"

...

'Beast, ready the medical wing,' Xavier's voice rung clearly in the blue doctor's head, 'We have some unexpected guests in need of our assistance, yours in particular.'

'Of course Charles,' he began to do as he was told and wondered who could possibly be in need of such immediate medical attention.

'Logan, the Brotherhood are approaching the Mansion, please open the gates and escort them directly to the medical wing, they are badly in need of our help,' the mental communication seemed urgent, 'Their thoughts seem confused and jumbled, I cannot make out what's wrong, but I believe Toad to be sick or injured.'

'OK Chuck, you sure?'

'Yes Logan.'

'Just checking,' the gruff Canadian went to do as he was told.

...

Lance's jeep sped up to the X-Mansion, Pietro at the wheel. The gates were already open, Logan had done as the Professor asked and he was waiting at the front door for them as the jeep screeched to a halt, skidding dramatically. Pietro was a drama queen after all, but this situation certainly warranted a bit of drama. He switched the ignition off and jumped out of the car, helping Lance down with his precious cargo as Fred steadied them from behind, following them out of the car. Toad had had stopped screaming, but he was still fitting. Logan stepped forward.

"You gotta help us," pleaded Lance, cradling Toad to his chest, a panic stricken look in his eyes.

This was serious, "C'mon, we'll get the kid to Beast and he'll be fine."

The followed him, jogging but not running (except Pietro who was too agitated to slow down and had gone ahead to chivvy Beast into action) so as to not hurt Toad any further than they had to.

...

"I vonder vhat zhat vas all about?" Kurt's tail flicked in agitation.

"They said Toad was sick, I didn't, like, think he was that sick though," Kitty answered, biting her nails.

"Oh my..." said Jean. She'd caught a glimpse of the boys' thoughts as they'd passed. Everyone was in for a big shock come explanation time...

...

AN: OK, so I've read a couple of fics where Toad's mutation accelerates and he gender switches (including Female by sachainlovestoad), but I thought I'd take it in a slightly different direction. And, yes, apperez1440, you did indeed guess correctly.


	5. Chapter 4: Awakenings

Children of Thalidomide

...

Chapter 4: Awakenings

...

"Curious," said Beast examining his now quiet patient, "Most curious indeed..."

"Well doc, what's the verdict?" Lance had resisted all attempts to remove him from his friend's bedside in the last three days. Pietro and Fred had been persuaded to go after just one, though reluctantly and only because there was no news. Plus, they had to eat sometime, though Lance didn't seem to think so.

"I believe that Toad has been injected with veritable cocktail of mutation accelerants and growth hormones, and though I would need to do further tests and have samples of the original formula to determine exactly... I could safely guess that this is in fact the natural progression of Toad's mutation and his amphibian genes, but at an alarming pace. Which has left his body and immune system unable to cope with the speed of the changes and it has started attacking itself and his mutation. I can treat it, however, so we shall see him up and about in no time, though he may need a little time to recover and, er, adjust to his new powers."

"So what you're saying is Toad's supposed to turn into a girl?"

"Ah, not exactly, Lance. It is a little complicated and I have not quite worked through all the details, ahem. However, some frogs and other amphibians do have the ability to switch between genders at will. Quite how this will work for Toad and how long before, if indeed at all, Mr. Tolensky will be able to change back into being male is difficult to determine at this stage."

"So what you're saying is Todd's stuck as a girl, maybe forever."

"Not exactly, perhaps, it will take some more time to determine."

"Well fuck."

...

Toad groaned. He felt like he'd been hit by a steamroller that'd backed up and run him over again. Twice. And that was only after he'd gone twenty rounds with a wrecking ball, in fact, try the whole damn construction site. He hurt all over, his muscles ached as if he'd just run a marathon, even places he didn't know could hurt, hurt. And man, did he feel really weird. Hang on, this wasn't his bed... was that the smell of disinfectant and the beep, beep of a heart monitor? Where the hell was he? For a moment he panicked, what if Magneto had taken him somewhere... then he blinked his eyes open briefly and recognised the hospital wing of the Institute. Not much better really. What had happened and why was he here anyway? Last thing he remembered, Lance had been giving him a bath or something, and he blushed a little, embarrassed by the thought. What the hell had happened? Where was everybody? His chest felt sore and tight, kind of tender, his hand drifted down to rub it and... What the shit?!

Toad's eyes shot open and he sat up quickly – a little too quickly – after the initial dizziness he peered down his pyjama top to find something totally unexpected. He had breasts. Very small breasts, but breasts all the same. His heart started racing, his head was spinning, if he had boobs, then what about... he looked down and screamed, tearing off the heart monitor leads and ripping out the saline drip before jumping off the bed and running towards the nearest exit, still screaming.

...

The Professor had finally convinced Lance to go have a shower and catch a few hours' sleep after a week with no change in Toad's condition. He was just heading down the corridor, intent on returning to his friend's side when he heard the screaming and began to run towards it. Fuck, of course Toad would wake up when nobody was there with him. Lance cursed profusely under his breath. He wasn't the only one in the corridor now, Xavier had sent out the mental call, the sound of running feet from several directions, Lance sped up and suddenly Pietro was beside him. They shared a brief, grim look. Logan joined them just as they rounded the corner and the screaming, running Toad came into view. He looked like a mad dog, feral and as good as foaming at the mouth with sheer panic. His fear and confusion was tangible in the air, Lance thought he could smell it, and he knew Logan definitely could.

Pietro got there first and caught Toad by the arms, pulling him into a sort of awkward bear hug, just to stop him from running. Lance caught up and grabbed the younger mutant by the shoulders, steadying them both and looking into his friend's eyes to calm him. Logan stayed silently nearby, just in case Todd tried to hurt himself, but he didn't interfere. This wasn't his battle to fight.

"Shh, Toadie, it's OK," soothed Lance.

"Yeah man, we'll work it out, get it sorted, yeah," added Pietro, maintaining the hug awkwardly, adjusting it slightly so he was gripping Todd's shoulders from behind, and giving them a reassuring squeeze.

"How?!" wailed Toad despairingly, pulling at his pyjama shirt, "I have boobs!"

Of course, Kurt chose the exact moment that Toad was showing half the Brotherhood and Logan his newly acquired breasts to _bamf_ in, Kitty to phase through a nearby wall and of course Cyclops to come skidding round a corner, late on the scene as usual.

"Woah, what?!"

Life was going to get even more interesting at the Institute and fast...


	6. Chapter 5: Girlfriends or Wanda Returns

Children of Thalidomide

...

Chapter 5: Girlfriends (or, Wanda Returns)

...

Wanda Maximoff slammed open the front door of the Brotherhood boarding house and stomped into the living room, ready to hex anyone foolish enough to cross her path. But nobody was there, strange. She stomped into the kitchen and found nothing but a sinkful of stinking, unwashed dishes, a dripping tap and a broken window. Not quite so strange, but still, the house was oddly quiet. She frowned and checked upstairs, nobody home... Admittedly Lance's car hadn't been outside, but she'd kind of expected someone to be in. Usually when she disappeared for a month frog-boy would've launched an all-out offensive of attempted hugs and kisses. It was creepy and unwanted affection, sure, but it was expected behaviour and hearing the crunch and crash as she used his body to break a wall or a bookshelf was a satisfying outlet for her anger. She shrugged and flopped down on the couch, oh well, the morons would be back later and she could vent her frustrations on the Toad then. She flicked on the TV and started channel surfing.

Three hours later and they still weren't back yet. OK, fair enough if only a couple of them came back, but at least one of those nincompoops should have turned up by now. This was getting a bit much; were they purposefully trying her patience? Had they somehow managed to get mixed up in one of her deadbeat father's grand schemes again? Not impossible. It wasn't like she was worried about her idiot brother and his teammates or anything, but seriously, what the hell were they playing at? Her patience was wearing thin and the vein in her forehead began to throb; she'd been deprived of her favourite punching bags for too long now. She growled and slammed the remote down, turning the TV off violently and stomping out the door, grabbing her coat as she went. She'd go see the X-men, if they weren't there causing trouble already then at least they might know where those dunderheads had got to or, failing that, Xavier could probably be persuaded to use Cerebro to find out.

...

Toad was hunched in a depressed huddle in the window seat of the Rec room, pulling at his own hair, mumbling to himself and rocking backwards and forwards. He had not taken the news that he might be stuck as a girl permanently very well at all. Stuck somewhere between denial and gibbering madly, Todd had been refusing to eat or to talk to anyone unless he had to. It hurt his friends to know – and pretend not to – that he had cried himself to sleep every night for the last five days since he'd been awake. It had been a struggle to even get him to come out of the room he and Lance were sharing (Pietro was less than happy about rooming with Fred, but he didn't have much choice and Lance's temper had put paid to any moaning), so the fact that he was doing his rocking, mumbling thing in the Rec room at all was a step in the right direction. It wasn't good, but it was a start.

...

"What're we gonna do about Toad? I can't get him to eat anything and, God knows he's bloody well thin enough already," Lance was frustrated, practically tearing out his own hair, he was taking is role as leader too seriously again. He blamed himself for not noticing what was going on sooner, heck, he was supposed to be in charge and take care of the others; he was the closest thing to an older brother/ father-figure the younger boys had. Blaming himself wasn't helping anything, but it's what he did and no amount of telling Lance it wasn't his fault was going to change the fact that he thought it was. He slumped forward onto the kitchen table, defeated and deflated; pushing away the plate of chopped banana he'd been trying to tempt Toad with earlier, to no avail. Fred and Kurt started picking at it half-heartedly, slouched unhappily in their chairs. Todd's lack of appetite was rubbing off on even them. They had expected Freddy to comfort eat in a big way, but he hadn't. In fact, quite the opposite he was so worried about his 'little brother'.

Kitty leaned forward and placed a comforting hand on her on-again-off-again-on-again-off-again-who-even-knows-again boyfriend's shoulder and smiled lopsidedly, "It'll be, like, alright in the end. The Professor says we just need to, like, give Toad some time and stuff to get it all sorted in, um, his head."

"Yeah, but what if it's not 'alright', pretty kitty, eh?" asked an almost hysterical Quicksilver, moving restlessly about the kitchen, zipping here and there as if he'd just had ten gallons of coffee mixed with the same amount of those caffeinated energy drinks, "What if ickle Toadie is stuck as a Toadette for the rest of his life? What if he never changes back? What if he's stuck that way?!"

"Less, of the dramatics, kid," grunted Logan, wandering in to grab a cold beer from the fridge. He popped the bottle cap skilfully with a flick of his adamantium claws and sipped it slowly as he considered the room of assorted Brotherhood members and X-men. All of them just kids, none of them ready to deal with something like this. Heck, he wasn't sure he was even ready to deal with any of this. He took a deep swallow of his beer and sighed. Looks like he was gonna have to dispense some wisdom and play Dad again. Damn, if they were all really his kids and not just unofficially adopted, that'd be a lot of child support to pay; _and going up all the time_, he though.

"The way I see it," he began, leaning nonchalantly against the fridge, "there's no use beating yourselves up about what's happened to the kid," he gestured with his half-drunk bottle towards the Rec room, "it ain't your fault and there's not much you can do about it except be there for the Tadpole when he needs ya."

He paused to take another swig of his drink, "It might be permanent, sure, but it might only last a week or a month or a year, or he could change back tomorrow. There's no way of knowing, so don't think about it too much. Give the poor kid some space for a bit, don't crowd him and when he's ready to talk, he will." He nodded and left, not waiting for a response.

"Mister Logan sure is smart," whistled Kitty.

"Yeah, I s'pose..." replied Lance.

...

Wanda stormed up to the Institute's gates, a scowl marring her face. She'd expected them to be shut tight, so she'd riled herself up, ready for a confrontation. Either by shouting heatedly down the intercom at someone, or better yet, making her entrance by blasting open the doors and maybe setting off the security system so she could toast a few robots and maybe even throw some of the more sanctimonious of the X-team into some trees or something (preferably Cyclops, he was an idiot); not to injure them physically, just bruise a few egos to make her feel better. But they were wide open, so she was once again deprived of an outlet for her growing temper. Man, Toad or Pietro was in for a world of hurt when she saw them, she might even stretch to Freddy or Lance this time she was so mad.

Sending gravel flying as she tramped up the driveway, Wanda clenched her fists and her jaw, grumbling about stupid boys making her go to all this trouble and few choice swear words for good measure. She reached the front doors without any hassle and was all set to blow the bloody doors in when they were opened by Wolverine, chewing on an unlit cigar.

"Chuck said you were coming," he said, showing her in, "They're here, I'd start with the Rec room."

Wanda growled and stomped on to find them and smack them about for making her worry over nothing, what the hell were they doing here anyway? They didn't seem to be fighting or anything. What the hell was going on?!

Logan shook his head, "Should I warn 'em Chuck?"

"No," said the Professor, appearing from the shadows, his wheelchair moving silently, "This will do them some good."

"Fair enough," he chuckled, heading outside to smoke in relative peace.

...

Walking into the Rec room purposefully Wanda scanned the room and spotted Toad in the window seat, he still hadn't moved from that same spot. Funny, he hadn't jumped on her yet, maybe he just hadn't seen her. Her scowl deepened and her powers began to gather.

"What the hell is going on here?!" she screamed, grabbing Toad with her powers and flinging him against the opposite wall, "Why are you here? Making me worry over nothing!"

"Wanda!" Pietro zoomed into the room; the others close behind, "What brings you here?"

Wanda screamed inarticulately, throwing her brother against the same wall she'd just flung Toad into. He landed with a thump on top of the dazed boy-girl. "Oof, what'cha do that for?" he whined.

"What the hell are you playing at? Why weren't you at the boarding house? What happened?"

"Well, you see..." He was interrupted by a no-longer dazed Toad leaping for Wanda in a flying hug, being thrown into a hard surface by Wanda had snapped him out of his pity party (guest list, one). It was normal, familiar, it was something he knew from before all the strangeness and, no matter how twisted it may seem, it was almost comforting. It was his Wanda, the way she should be, not treating him differently like everyone else was.

"Sweetums!" She didn't even have time to apprehend it he was so fast. He clung to her tightly, as if his life depended on it. Wanda froze, something wasn't right; and not just because he was clingier than usual. She flung him against the couch this time.

"Would someone mind telling me why Toad has breasts?!" she screamed.

...

AN: On the subject of Lance and Toad being roommates, I know normally Xavier wouldn't allow a girl and guy to share a room, but under the circumstances I think that he'd see it as being best for Toad to be around familiar people who he trusts and Lance is clearly the most caring/responsible. Though now that Wanda's turned up again he may feel it more, ah, appropriate, for them to share. Though I doubt she'd see it that way and it might cause more problems. We shall see how it goes...


	7. Chapter 6: Girl Friends or The Sleepover

Children of Thalidomide

...

Chapter 6: Girl Friends (or, The Sleepover)

...

"I am not sharing a room with Toad, I don't care if he's a girl, he's still a disgusting Toad."

"Now, Wanda..." began Xavier.

"No, I mean it," she replied with conviction.

"How about some of the girls have a slumber party of sorts, just to test it out?" interjected Storm diplomatically, "We can set it up for them in the Rec room with sleeping bags and movies and snacks and things. How about trying something like that?"

"Well Wanda, does that sound agreeable?" asked Xavier, one eyebrow raised, hands steepled.

"Fine," she huffed.

...

Toad slumped down on the floor next to Wanda and Kitty, clutching her pillow between her chest and knees in a protective crouch. Rouge and Jean were on the sofa. She felt incredibly uncomfortable; they were sitting about in their pyjamas in the Rec room watching some god-awful chick-flick with Hugh Grant or someone in it, she didn't really know or care. What the heck did girls do at a sleepover anyway? As the film credits rolled, she was about to find out...

"Like, we should totally do makeovers," squealed Kitty excitedly, "I'll go get my make-up and stuff." She jumped up and ran towards the stairs before anyone could reply.

"Do we have to?" grouched Scarlet Witch, scowling slightly.

"Come on, it'll be fun," said Jean encouragingly. Wanda just snorted and shared an unconvinced look with Rogue. Well, too late now. Toad just watched warily, unsure of what exactly was in store for her.

"Naw, no way are you putting that crud on my face, yo!" protested Toad as a while later Kitty reappeared and proceeded to attempt to use her as a dress-up-doll. Toad had jumped up to the ceiling and was refusing to come down.

"Stop making such a fuss; it won't, like, hurt or anything."

"No way, yo!"

"Now girls..." interjected Jean.

"Urgh! Fine, if it'll shut you both up, just do your stupid makeover to me first, but only if you come down from there, but you all have to get one too, I won't suffer this foolishness alone," snapped Wanda irritably. Truth was, she was sort of enjoying herself, but she couldn't let the others know. Rogue probably guessed, as her fellow Goth was currently snickering behind a gloved hand, knowing for once that her powers would spare her from this particular activity. Or would it? Wanda had other ideas and as she sat on the floor where Kitty indicated, she smirked that particular smirk that on her brother meant mischief; well, they were twins after all...

...

Toad stayed up at the ceiling, clinging to the cornicing as she watched Kitty first remove Wanda's customary heavy kohl and begin to apply foundation and 'pretty' make-up in a range of roses and purples that suited Wanda's colouring perfectly. It was a fascinating process and she began to crawl down from her perch to get a closer look. So _this _was how all that girly crap was done...

By the time Kitty was applying the finishing touches of lip-gloss and mascara, Toad had crawled up to the side of the sofa and was crouched with her head and arms resting on the arm, watching in awe as Kitty worked her magic and turned Wanda from hard-nosed, gothic punk into what Toad could only describe as a beautiful princess. Her heart skipped a beat and she bit back a gasp as Kitty gave one final stroke of the (magic) mascara wand and Wanda's beautiful, coal-black eyelashes fluttered open. Toad bit her lip and began to wonder if this magic could work on even her. Probably not, _once a toad, always a toad_.

"Violá!" said Kitty triumphantly; turning her hand mirror to face Wanda and reveal her new look.

"Hmm," was all she said, a frown marring her otherwise lovely complexion, turning the mirror this way and that, "Passable. Not my usual style, but not a bad job."

"You're gorgeous..." whispered Toad so quietly that it almost went unnoticed. Jean smiled gently, the only one close enough to have heard the soft exhalation of breath.

"OK, now it's your turn," said Wanda to Kitty and Jean, "Rogue, let's go get our make-up."

...

"Wanda, I'm not at all sure about this..." said Jean as the grinning Wiccan brandished three different black eyeliners with glee.

"Fair's fair," she replied, "You do ours, we do yours."

"O-okay," said Jean worriedly; Wanda was enjoying this far too much for her liking.

Toad watch with rapt attention as Wanda did Jean's make-up and Rogue did Kitty's. For all Jean's worrying, Wanda was actually being surprisingly kind in her use of a classic, smoky, dark eye and only a little eyeliner; truthfully she was making Jean up to look like a silver screen starlet. She just enjoyed making the older mutant squirm uncomfortably. Kitty was getting something a little cattier to suit her name and appearance; Rogue was putting her eye pencil to good use with a modern take on Cleopatra. Open-mouthed as if she were catching flies, Toad continued to watch and crept over the armrest and onto the sofa. This was fascinating stuff; the mysteries of women, eh...

"Wicked!" said Kitty when she saw her best friend's handiwork, then passed Jean the hand mirror.

"Oh Wanda, it's wonderful, thank you," gushed Jean, genuinely surprised by her new look. It looked amazing with her flaming red hair, which Wanda was just itching to put in curlers and do it like they did in the 1940's. Maybe she still would, but first, two small problems...

"Now, Rogue, it's your turn," she remarked briskly.

"But mah powahs..." spluttered the southern girl at the mere suggestion that she remove her heavy layers of protective make-up.

"Its fine, you can do it yourself, we'll just dictate to you what we want," Wanda answered imperiously, just like a true Maximoff, "You're good at it, you'll do fine."

"But..."

"No buts, off with that make-up, if we have to do it, you have to do it too."

"Fahne."

...

Rogue removed her make-up with trepidation, it was her carefully constructed barrier between her and the outside world and with just a few words and a little cold cream, Wanda had knocked it down just like the Berlin Wall. She sighed heavily and reached for another cotton pad.

"Oh Rogue, you're soooo pretty," exclaimed Kitty, it was very rare for them to see Rogue without a full face of make-up. She was a natural beauty with sparkling green eyes and wonderful creamy skin. Toad was captivated as she watched Rogue apply a thin layer of light foundation and powder instead of her usual trowelled-on whiteface.

"Green and brown, I think, for the eyes," said Jean authoratively.

"Fahne, just hold tha mirror straight," she grouched.

"Sorry," squeaked Kitty.

"You look amazing," said Toad tentatively to Rogue who had just flopped down on the couch next to her grumpily.

"Yeah, yeah..."

"Now it's your turn Toad," said Wanda.

Toad gulped nervously, "Okay..."

...

"Close your eyes," said Kitty, Toad complied and felt the soft tickle of the powder brush as she made a base and concealed the bags under Toad's eyes.

"Grey or blue?" asked Jean, holding up two different eye shadows for Rogue and Wanda to see.

"Definitely the grey," replied Rogue.

"I agree," said Wanda picking out a lovely soft rose blusher and handing it to Kitty.

"Pink for the lips," said Kitty, dusting Toads cheeks with the blusher Wanda had given her and reaching for the eye shadow.

"No, coral or nude," argued Jean. This conversation was both fascinating and worrying for Toad who was completely at their mercy; both in being made-up and in learning how to be a girl.

"Oh, don't wiggle, you've made the eyeliner go all squiggly," admonished Kitty, licking her finger and reaching out to rub off the offending eyeliner. Toad jumped a mile at the sudden, damp contact.

"Hey, what are you doing?" squealed Kitty, "I already told you to sit still!"

"Sorry," squeaked a thoroughly confused Toad, slinking back into place sheepishly to be preened and primped further by the other girls. Toad was incredibly mystified by what Kitty had done, she had absentmindedly treated him like another, ordinary (well as ordinary as any mutant can be) girl at a sleepover and Toad just wasn't used to it. When she was a boy, Kitty would have screamed things like 'gross' and 'ick' and refused to touch him with a barge pole let alone a spittle-covered finger. It was strange and unwarranted and it was all beginning to get a bit too much for poor, overwhelmed Toad.

"There, all done, you can open your eyes now," cried Kitty proudly. Wanda held the mirror up in front of the stunned girl who reached forward and touched its glassy surface hesitantly.

"Wow..." exhaled Toad, "Who is that? That can't be me, right?"

"No, it's you," laughed Jean good-naturedly. Toad took the mirror from Wanda, utterly speechless with shock and gratitude. Whilst Toad's resulting appearance was not that of a gorgeous supermodel; this particular ugly duckling had, if not been turned into a swan, at least been turned into a reasonably okay looking duck. Maybe a goose. Toad was never going to be a beautiful woman, she was and would always remain passably plain; but with the right make-up and a different haircut (or any haircut for that matter) she could be pretty.

"Thank you!" she said launching herself in a flying hug at the other girls, they landed in a laughing pile and, for once, Wanda allowed the contact and did not throw Toad into a bookcase or wall.

...

AN: Toad as a girl would not be beautiful because Toad as a man is not. His features would, however, be slightly softer and more feminine. That's something I don't find believable about other gender-switch fics I've read; the character wouldn't suddenly become drop-dead-gorgeous just because they are now a different sex. For instance, a female Juggernaut would still be a beefy bodybuilder; it's just that he would now have boobs, really muscley ones (and now I have that image in my head, thanks imagination). I do think that Toad would be prettier if he was a girl, not beautiful or stunning, but pretty in an unconventional, verging on plain way. And, hey, when you've been called 'a disgusting Toad' your whole life, pretty plain is a hell of an improvement.


	8. Chapter 7: Method in the Madness

Children of Thalidomide

...

Chapter 7: Method in the Madness

...

"Now Todd, I fully understand that it may seem very soon still to be returning to school, but your education is important and you have already missed several weeks. The others have been back for some time now and I believe it's high time for you to follow them," Xavier had called Toad to his office to discuss the delicate matter to Toad returning to school after a prolonged absence.

"But Prof, what do I do about, y'know, being a girl and stuff, yo?" Toad griped, "What about gym class? What happens if someone finds out about me not being a boy anymore? How will I know which bathroom to use?!"

"I am well aware that you do not go to gym class, so that will not be an issue. As for the other matters, you will have the other Brotherhood members there and my students to help you; if anyone you do not wish to know finds out, we shall deal with it then. I have informed the school of your absence being due to illness and you have a free pass to go to the nurse's office whenever you feel the need to take a little time out due to your, ah, somewhat unusual circumstances. But do not abuse this privilege or you will soon find it taken away. In regards to which bathroom to use, which one do you use now? Just be careful to take someone with you to guard against discovery. Will that be all?"

"I don't wanna hafta be babysat to go to the bathroom, I ain't five y'know," he folded his arms and scowled, swinging his legs over the arm of the chair and jumping to his feet. Logan opened the door and let Toad out.

"You sure you're doing the right thing, Chuck?" he asked, pausing in the doorway, "You sure the kid's ready?"

"No, I am not sure that Toad is ready, but I must trust that it is the right thing to do," Xavier replied, "This will be good for him."

"Whatever you think's best..."

...

Toad stood in front of the mirror in the room he/she was now sharing with the somewhat reluctant Wanda. She'd threatened him profusely if she caught him trying to peep at her changing or if there was "any funny stuff" he was straight back in with Lance or Pietro... or possibly sleeping on the porch, getting there via the window. Much as that wouldn't have deterred his peeking normally, he wasn't exactly comfortable with it at the moment; did it make him gay if he still had feelings for Wanda now? Or would it be gayer if he suddenly developed a crush on, say, Freddy or something? He was just so confused by it all that even if he wanted to there was no way he was feeling up to "any funny stuff" with anyone, possibly ever again. It was just too... weird right now. And when you were a mutant, 'weird' was really weird. Heck, he didn't even feel comfortable looking at himself in the buff anymore let alone his Snugglebunny. He'd been changing in the bathroom or the bedroom closet as fast as humanly possible – without actually being Quicksilver that is – so that nobody, let alone himself, could see his scrawny, underdeveloped, female, body. It was embarrassing.

"Toad, get your lazy butt up and attem!" called Cyclops from the hallway, "You're gonna miss breakfast if you don't hurry up!"

Todd sighed and closed the wardrobe door, shouldering his schoolbag heavily. He gulped and pushed the rising nausea down with a steadying breath. His stomach was doing somersaults and there was no way he'd be able keep down even a morsel of food in his current, nervous, state. First day back since his magical sex change and he wasn't looking forward to it one bit.

"Suck it up, Tolansky," he told himself, taking the stairs two at a time.

"Hey Toad, we saved you some bagels," said Lance, smiling, and handing the younger mutant a wrapped package as they met at the front door.

"Thanks, I'll save them for later," he said, shoving them in his bag. His stomach was still doing flip-flops.

"C'mon Lancey, let's get a move on," said Quicksilver, appearing behind him and slinging an arm around Avalanche's shoulders. It was quickly shrugged off and they headed for the door, closely followed by Freddy. Wanda had already set off with Rogue and Kitty. They weren't the last to leave, but they were dangerously close.

The ride to school was uneventful and the other members of the BoM were trying to make it as normal as possible for him. They were laughing and bantering and he joined in weakly with a few jokes, but his contributions were few and strained. Toad really did appreciate the effort they were making, it was just all he could do not to break down sobbing and probably vomit everywhere. He smiled wanly at Pietro's latest attempt at humour as they pulled up in front of Bayville High. It was going to be a long, hard day for them all.

...

"Glad to see you could join us today, Tolansky," drawled the teacher during fourth period. The first couple had been sympathetic towards him or ignored him by turns. Admittedly he had slunk in a _little_ late; but it had been for a very good reason. He'd had a bathroom related crisis. The crisis being the one he'd predicted in Xavier's office: which one was he supposed to use? Obviously it didn't matter at the Institute and, in theory; he should just keep on using the little boy's room at school if he was keeping up the pretence that he was, in fact, still a guy. In practice, however, he was still so muddled and confused that – despite his earlier protestations about being a big whatever-the-hell-he-was – he'd ended up begging Lance to go with him whilst he hid in the stalls and pointedly avoided the urinals. It was bloody embarrassing and stupid and Toad felt very ashamed of himself and the whole, unfair, situation. Stupid Magneto and his stupid growth hormones. Stupid frog powers and their stupid gender switch capabilities. Stupid body and its stupid need to pee. He cursed under his breath and mumbled an apology before scuttling to his seat and attempting to appear invisible. Why couldn't _that_ be his power instead?

By sixth period it was all getting to much for the poor wee soul and Toad had taken up residence in the nurse's office with a cold compress over his eyes. It was tiring trying hard not to bump into anyone just in case they walked into his chest and discovered his secret and he flinched every time someone accidentally jostled him in the busy corridors. It was mostly paranoia on his part, but Toad was such a jumbled bundle of nerves that it took a lot out of him and the slightest thing had him practically jumping a mile. It was also hard work avoiding Duncan Matthews and his gang of fellow jocks. If they caught him, it could and probably would end very badly for Toad. It was a very real danger that they might decide to strip him down to his underpants and string him from the flagpole. Again. Then his little, uh, secret would definitely be out in the open for all to see. Literally. Luckily, Toad had so far avoided that particular mishap, but it was really only a matter of time. He groaned and rolled onto his side even contemplating the possibility. If they found out would it make any difference? Would they hit a girl? He just hoped against hope that he never had to find out.

Between those and other worries – such as his earlier bathroom dilemma – and the fact that he hadn't been left alone all day, even between classes. Even if they weren't in any of his classes, someone would pop up outside his door, or at lunch or anywhere else you could think of. Either and X-man or another member of the Brotherhood had appeared with a smile and an offer of their company. Again, it wasn't that he didn't appreciate the gesture; it was just all a bit too much too fast. He was far from used to all the attention and he didn't like it one bit. The poor kid was overwhelmed and this was just day one of however many until Beast and Xavier found a way to reverse this thing or it just ran its course. If only the ground could open up and swallow him whole in one big gulp then he wouldn't have to deal with any of this downright fucked-up-ness.

...

It wasn't until Lance gently shook him awake and his eyes opened sleepily that Toad even realised he'd fallen asleep in the first place.

"Hey," he said thickly, his lashes fluttering.

"Hey, yourself," grinned Lance lopsidedly, "C'mon, let's go back to the X-mansion, just you 'n' me, eh?"

"Huh?" asked Toad groggily, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. The damp cloth had long ago dried and fallen to the floor.

"Gave Quickie my keys to drive himself and Fred back," shrugged Lance, "Figured you could use the fresh air, clear your head, give us a chance to talk, man to, ah, man..."

"Thanks Lance," Toad said softly, swinging his thin form off of the bed and grabbing his backpack from the chair beside it.

They walked in companionable silence down the relatively empty halls of Bayville High and out into the open air. There were a few stragglers like themselves, kids on their way to detention or club activities and book nerds headed for the library. Otherwise it was pretty quiet on the home front.

They walked a little way before Lance broke the silence with a question, "So, ah, how you holding up?"

"OK, I s'pose," said Toad, kicking the dust with his scuffed and holey trainers. Just as well it was dry; otherwise they'd be letting in a helluvah lot of water right about now. Lance made a mental note to talk to Xavier about maybe getting Toad some new trainers. He hated to rely on the old dude like that, but the kid really needed some new shoes. This whole stupid situation was making them all take more notice of Toad and the fact that he'd been royally let-down and neglected by the lot of them. The whole BoM was ashamed of their behaviour towards the younger mutant, even Pietro – well as much as Pietro could ever be ashamed of anything that wasn't to do with his hair or his appearance. Lance stole a quick glance at Toad, gods the kid was painfully thin and so damn tiny for his age. How much of that was his mutation though they'd never been able to tell. How'd they managed to let it get this bad though? So bad that he'd been too scared to tell any of them that Magneto had been abusing his power over them in one of the worst ways possible.

"It's just so damn unfair," Toad began, "It's like, why me, yo? Why do I have to get turned into a girl? Why do I hafta get all these stupid confusing feelings and shit? What if people find out? What if it doesn't change anything at all and I still get beat up by jocks and hoisted up a flagpole in my underwear?"

"Huh?" said Lance, not sure he'd heard that last bit right, but Toad wasn't listening and continued his diatribe. This was the first time he'd voiced any of his fears seriously and he was on a roll.

"What if it changes everything? What if still liking Wanda makes me gay now? What if not liking Wanda anymore makes me gay instead? What if I start fancying Cyclops or something stupid like that? What if I never get changed back ever and I end up a girl the whole rest of my life?!"

_Ahh_, thought Lance, _that's what this is all about_.

"Look," he began, slinging one arm around his friend's shoulders loosely, "First off, this is new to us all, but never think that you have to deal with all this shit alone. We may not have all the answers, but you if you've got questions, don't be afraid to ask someone. Especially not me. Whatever happens, nothing changes between us, we're the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and we stick by our brothers, no matter what. It's OK to be afraid, hell, you scared us all shitless when you were so ill we thought you were dying. Pietro nearly cacked his pants."

A small smile from Toad, right, this was working, "As to why it's you, well, you're frog-boy, so it's just amphibian shit and Magneto's a fucking head-case so you'd have to ask him what the fuck he was trying to do. As for the whole Wanda thing, well, to be honest mate, I don't think she's ever gonna let you in her pants whether you're gay for her or not. And, dude, you're never, ever gonna fall for stick-up-the-arse Summers, nobody is that desperate. Pukesville."

He mimed a gagging motion and Toad laughed out loud. It was good to hear him make a genuine sound of mirth. It had been a while. Lance smiled back and continued, "Look, Beast and Xavier and the other grown-up X-geeks are looking into it. It might take them a while, but I'm sure they'll find a cure. We won't let you be stuck that way, even if I have to track down Magneto myself and throttle the information outta him with my bare hands."

"Thanks Lance," said Toad quietly and they dropped back into companionable silence, each digesting what the other one had to say as they approached the Institute.

...

"Most intriguing..." said Magneto, steepling his fingers as he sat across from Xavier in the lamp-lit office. Wolverine was brooding in the corner by the door, keeping an eye on proceedings just in case the Master of Magnetism tried "anything funny".

"What on earth were you trying to accomplish, Erik?" asked the Professor.

"Certainly not this, but the side effects are quite interesting," smirked the helmeted super-villain, "I was merely trying to, as Doctor McCoy correctly surmised, speed up the process of Toad's mutation to unlock its full potential. I never expected that to be part and parcel of his powers, though I suppose his – or should I say her? – amphibian nature should perhaps have crossed my mind."

"So you do not know how long it will last or how to immediately reverse it then?" sighed Xavier, resigned to the fact.

"Not immediately, no, but I shall think on it," he slapped his knee in amusement, "But it could be very interesting to watch it all play itself out, eh Charles?"

"Hmm..." intoned Xavier, unconvinced.

Logan just growled.

...

AN: So we finally find out that Magneto's apparently nefarious scheme was actually completely accidental after all. I'm so sorry for the delay between this and the last update, but I've been so busy with assessments at Uni that I've had no time at all to write until now. I've had about a page of this written for weeks, but hopefully this is nice and long enough to make up for the wait.


	9. Chapter 8: Dumpster Diving

Children of Thalidomide

...

Chapter 8: Dumpster Diving

...

Todd was actually surprised that it had taken a full two weeks and three days for Duncan and his cronies to corner him. Initially he'd had a bodyguard, or babysitter, at all times, but as the second week wore on 'Toad-watch' had relaxed a little where certain members of the X-men were concerned and this had led to the current situation. Lance, Pietro and Freddy couldn't be with him at all times, no matter how hard they tried and, unfortunately, all three had become detained today for one reason or another (detention, ditching detention to hook up with a girl and detention respectively). Equally unfortunately, Bobby and Evan were supposed to be keeping Toad company. And they weren't. Toad supposed he should have waited on someone else to walk or drive him back to the Institute, but he supposed he had to learn to fend for himself eventually. Now was as good a time as any. He had no idea if he was ready for this yet or not, but, well, it was too late if he wasn't. So far he'd only made it through one full day without heading to the nurse's office for at least a few hours, so perhaps it was too soon to have to deal with being beaten up and not found out, but, well, life wasn't fair so he had to just suck it up and get on with it.

"Hey wart-face," came the incredibly original insult, "lost your widdle babysitters, have you? Such a lickle ickle babykins you can't even go to the bathroom on your own, eh mutie?"

The jocks laughed uproariously, _soooo hilarious_ thought Toad, rolling his eyes. He squared his shoulders and adjusted his backpack, attempting to push through the circle of laughing hyenas without much success. There were three of them plus Duncan and only one of him. They were built like brick shit houses and he was built like a particularly flimsy lean-to.

"Let me pass, yo," he muttered. He did not need this right now.

"Hey," Duncan said, slinging one arm around Todd's thin shoulders with feigned camaraderie, "All we wanna do is have a friendly little chat, nothing wrong with that..."

Toad winced, Duncan and co.'s idea of a 'friendly chat' usually meant a severe beating, or being stuffed in a locker, or tied to a fence, or a swirly (how very elementary school of them) or something. And let's not forget the flagpole incident or that time they stripped him completely naked and locked him in the girl's showers. Fun times, not! Toad hoped against hope that it was just a good old fashioned kicking in he received today and not a repeat of the humiliating nudity he'd experienced on more than one occasion at the hands of the older boys. It was becoming a bit of a theme with Matthew's recently and Todd had to wonder at it. Plus, it would not be a good thing considering the circumstances of her current predicament. As he was led somewhat forcefully towards some dumpsters he almost heaved a sigh of relief. As long as he managed to protect his chest and remembered to react accordingly when kicked in the groin – it'd still hurt even if he was a girl, anyway, he figured – being roughed up a little and thrown in the garbage wasn't so bad really. As long as he just took the beating and didn't antagonise them, hard as that was, they'd get bored quickly. They'd done worse and to be perfectly honest, he considered himself lucky that this was all they were going to do to him this time. Or at least he _hoped_ that was all.

He soon found out that his theory about it still hurting to get kicked repeatedly in the groin, even with lady-bits, was correct. It still hurt like hell, though it was cushioned somewhat by the pair of socks he'd stuffed down there both for the comfort if it at least sort of feeling like he was still a guy and also just in case he was jumped and his attackers wondered why he didn't have anything in the downstairs department anymore when they beat on him. Like now. So, as long as nobody touched his chest, he was home free. Doubling up with an "Oomph!" he rolled onto his front so that the group of four boys was raining kicks and punches on his exposed back.

"Oh no you don't!" hissed one of the jocks dangerously, Toad didn't see which one, but he was grabbed roughly and rolled back over as one of them straddled his knees and another pinned his arms at either side of his head. _Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods, please don't let them touch my chest_, the small boy-girl chanted as a silent mantra as the blows to his face and vulnerable belly continued.

"Goddamnit, why aren't you reacting frog-boy?" growled Matthews, enraged as he punched Toad square in the nose with a sickening crunch. Toad's plan of not antagonising them had backfired and by not reacting and fighting back like usual he was actually angering the older boy further. The next punch to his gut had him almost retching and he knew that the last one to his eye wouldn't be pretty in the morning; he could already feel it swelling. He'd had much worse beatings in his life, but it was still pretty bad. He began to kick and thrash his arms, trying frantically to get away, hoping that things would go back to normal this way, Toad wasn't entirely stupid. At least any blows to his chest so far had managed, somehow, to miss his budding breasts. They were getting bigger, much to his dismay, but they were still tiny enough to not require even a training bra yet.

"Throw him in the dumpster with the rest of trash, I'm bored of this," sneered Duncan, getting up and dusting himself off, maybe ten minutes later. His minions complied and Toad felt himself flying through the air gracelessly and hit the rotting filth and stinking garbage bags with a 'Whumph'. It was a mystery to almost everyone why Toad rarely showered, but if you thought about the fact that being thrown into dumpsters and garbage cans, dragged along muddy football pitches by his ankles whilst tied to one of those white line painting zambone-come-golf-cart things and having his head shoved down a toilet was a pretty regular school day for the poor boy it was no wonder he didn't see the point in regular hygiene rituals. Why get all clean and sweet-smelling when just a few hours later he'd be twice as stinky and gross as before? Plus, his natural mucus, among other nice mutation related skin problems, didn't help much in the whole battle to stay clean.

He lay there prone, his body in an uncomfortable position, limbs akimbo, where he had been flung as the older boys walked off, laughing. He decided not to move for a while so he could assess the damage. One eye was sore and puffy, almost swollen shut and his nose was bleeding, but it didn't actually feel broken. He knew from experience what a broken nose felt like and this wasn't it. Good, no broken bones in his arms or legs, couple of bruised ribs, maybe a couple cracked, but he couldn't tell. Split lip and another chipped tooth, he spat the blood out of his mouth, groaning as his vision swam and his head pounded. Yeah, maybe he'd just lie here for a little while... He winced again, shifting a bit to get more comfortable, but not much. Well, on the up side, at least he was still conscious and nobody had found out about the boobs. He grinned a bit at his own gallows humour and wheezed painfully as it only split his lip open further and made his nose throb painfully. At least it had, mostly, stopped bleeding now, slowing to a steady trickle. Yup, definitely staying put for a bit.

...

Back at the Institute, Lance was going crazy at Iceman and Spyke, who had returned just a few moments ago _sans_ Toad. He was angrier at himself though for trusting the X-men to do something as simple as not lose Toad. It was the first day that he'd not personally escorted his friend home and he was scared for Todd and royally pissed off at himself for not just skipping detention, but he needed to go or the school was going to suspend him again. Damn it, wasn't Toad's wellbeing worth a suspension or three? He could kick himself. As it was, he was screaming at Bobby and Evan for being irresponsible and ducking out of their Toad-watch duties to build "an epic ice ramp that would get them some totally killer skateboarding air" or whatever dumb shit they'd pulled instead of looking out for the youngest Brotherhood member.

"And you call that looking out for Toad like you were supposed to, do you?" roared Lance, the ground shaking slightly as a worried Blob placed his meaty hands steadyingly onto his leader's shoulders.

"He'll be OK, just goofing off or taking a nap somewhere," the large boy said weakly, trying to convince himself more than anything else. Toad was his best friend in the world and if anything really and truly bad – Freddy realised that turning into a girl suddenly and without wanting to must suck big time, but that wasn't the same as being dead or horrifically injured kind of bad – he didn't know what he'd do without the little slime ball. It was just too hard to imagine, so Fred preferred not to.

"Calm down, Lance," said Professor Xavier, appearing at the top of the stairs, accompanied by Logan and Storm, just in time to see Lance grab Bobby by the shirt and lift him off the ground with one hand. Jean had mentally called the Professor after trouble had broken out in the entrance hall. Scott and she had been in the kitchen with Kitty and Amara and had come running to see what the yelling was all about.

"Put Mr. Drake down and explain what is going on," Ororo said firmly.

"These fucking idiots lost Toad and he ain't come back yet and nobody else knows where he is!" growled Lance, shaking Bobby for emphasis before reluctantly letting him go. He wasn't very gentle about it and Iceman landed with a thud on his ass.

"Language, Lance," warned the Professor.

"Is this true, Bobby? Evan?" asked Storm, startled at her nephew and young charge's irresponsible behaviour. Yes they were both fairly carefree and given to playfully shirking chores, but surely they wouldn't be so foolish when trusted to do something as important as this?

"Yes Auntie O," Evan hanging his head in shame.

"Yes," said Bobby, unrepentant, rubbing his sore behind, "but it's not like it's a big deal, he'll turn up, it's only Toad."

Apparently they would. Ororo shook her head sadly. It took a firm hand on Lance's elbow, another to Blob's chest and a warning growl from Wolverine to stop Iceman from being pummelled to death by the worried mutants.

"I am ashamed of your behaviour, boys," said Ororo, "I expected more from you, from both of you."

"Sorry Auntie O," said Evan, contemplating the floor miserably. All he'd wanted to do was skateboard, surely Toad couldn't have gotten in too much trouble just because no one was there to walk or drive him back to the Institute. The little reprobate could find his own way back, right?

"What if, like, Magneto took him or something?" asked Kitty, the idea suddenly popping into her head. She just as suddenly regretted saying it as Lance balled his fists tighter and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'that Bastard', you could tell the B was capital.

"I am sure that if Todd is in any real danger he would have sent out a mental call for help or activated the communicator that I have given to each and every one of you," said Xavier soothingly.

"Not if he got jumped by Matthews and those jerks again," said Freddy quietly angry and not trying to smash everything around him this time at least. He still had a lot of anger in him, he had issues he knew, but when it came to Toad he knew he had to stay calm or they'd never help him. It was hard, but he was coping, for his littlest brother. "Sometimes if they beat him up really bad, he hides so nobody see what they've done 'til he can get cleaned up and stuff or if they've stuffed him in a locker or locked him in a cupboard or tied him to something he has to escape first," he elaborated, "Sometimes he can't get away for a while cos they've done something really bad like the time they stripped him naked and locked him in the girls' showers after breaking them so the water stayed on, cos they thought he stunk up the place too bad. He had to crawl out through the air vents and get home without being seen. I had to let him in the window after he'd climbed onto the roof so nobody'd see him."

"You never told me that," said Lance, quietly seething and plotting the murder of one Duncan Matthews and crew. So he had heard Toad correctly about the flagpole/underpants incident, damn. He was mad at himself as well for not knowing about things like that.

There was a stunned silence until Bobby broke it with a small, slightly ashamed, "Oh."

"I see..." said the Professor, steepling his fingers. Logan just growled.

"Duncan wouldn't do something like that though, it can't really be that bad," defended Jean.

"Shows how much you know, Grey," spat Freddy; he still hadn't forgiven her for her rejection of his feelings for her when they had first met.

"We shall deal with a fitting punishment for Evan and Bobby later, I believe Logan can think of something," said Xavier, "In the meantime, we had best make sure that no ill has befallen our young Mr. Tolansky then. Logan, Ororo, Scott, Jean, gather the others then split off into teams of three..."

Lance interrupted, irritated, "This is bullshit; I'm going right now, c'mon Freddy." They turned to leave and Scott started to protest, the Xavier hushed him.

"Now Lance, we must do this properly," he said, allowing the swearing to pass just this once.

"Screw properly, Toad could be out there, hurt or trapped or taken by fucking Magneto or something!"

"Now-"

Pietro chose that exact moment to waltz in through the front door, "What's got everyone's panties in such a bunch, huh?"

"They lost Toad," growled Lance.

"Matthews?"

"Probably."

Quicksilver's face hardened, "I'll be back, find Elf-boy just in case." And with that he was off. He'd seen Toad after Duncan and his Donuts had gotten hold of him.

...

"Toad, Toad, here Toadie, Toadie, Toadie, Toad?" called Pietro Maximoff as he dashed from place to place in the blink of an eye. It wasn't until her reached the dumpsters at the back of Bayville High that he heard a groan and stopped. Ah, of course, garbage canned again. Lovely. He hated most of all when the little wart came in covered in garbage; especially when he decided to eat it. Much as he loved Toad – though wouldn't admit it – the neat-freak in him couldn't stand the utter lack of personal hygiene. He hoisted himself up the side of the dumpster and peered in. He let the breath he was holding out with a whistle.

"Those jocks really did a number on you this time, Frog," he drawled, not unkindly, "How you feeling?"

"Been better, been worse, you?" slurred the prone figure.

"Better once we get you outta there and back to the X-geeks. I'll be back in a flash with some help, OK buddy?" he asked.

"Sure, I'll be here, just chillin', yo," he laughed brittley, through cracked lips and sore ribs. Quicksilver jumped down and was off again.

...

"I found him, dumpster, beat up, not badly though, just sore, c'mon fuzz-butt," said Quickie quickly, grabbing a startled Kurt by the elbow and the teleported away. The X-men had only just had time to assemble. Man they were slow as all hell.

...

"Over here," said an agitated and impatient Quicksilver (never a good mix), dragging Kurt over to the nearby dumpster containing his teammate and friend.

"Mein Gott!" exclaimed Kurt as he clambered up the side of the giant garbage can beside Pietro, who had climbed straight in to check on Toad, "Zis is bad!"

"Not really, fuzzy," rasped Toad, "Not too bad at all, yo," he said, sitting up with Pietro's help.

"Nein, nein, it iz bad, it has been worse?"

"Much," Pietro nodded in agreement with Toad, "C'mon, get a move on," he added on behalf of his winded comrade.

"Geez," said Kurt shaking his head at the statement, but he grabbed both boys and teleported back to the med-bay of the Institute. It was a lot to contemplate; Toad looked pretty damn beat up and they said it wasn't bad at all. What had their lives been like before coming to the X-Mansion? How had they not noticed what it was like for the Brotherhood? It was lot to think on.

...

"Ow, ow, ow! Jeez, ya tryin' ta kill me, yo?" complained a somewhat revived Toad as Beast played Doctor and liberally applied rubbing alcohol and iodine to his cuts and bruises.

"Hold still then, it will hurt less if you don't squirm so much."

"Ow, yo!"

"Well, at least if he's feeling well enough to gripe so much about a little bandaging then I guess he's fine after all," laughed Quicksilver.

"Shut up, yo. Don't talk about me as if I ain't here- Ow, yo!"

Quicksilver snickered and Kurt just looked on slightly confused. It wasn't long until Lance, Freddy, Wanda (who was totally not worried about the little wart at all, no siree bob) and a couple of the other X-men like Kitty and Rogue appeared to check on the patient.

"Wandaaaaa, it's sore, yo. Kiss it better sweetums? Ow!" pouted Toad, looking for sympathy.

"Ugh, no!" she screamed, though refrained from hexing him and just stomped off back upstairs, satisfied that he wasn't dying or anything. Rogue followed her, throwing a grin over her shoulder at the still pouting boy.

"Well, if you're feeling up to risking a serious hexing from Wanda later, you're not hurt too badly," laughed Lance, the earlier tension leaving his face, melting away as if it had never been.

"That's what I said!" snorted Quicksilver as Toad attempted to look indignant and Freddy just grinned, happy that his brother was safe.

"Hey, no fair – Ow! Ganging up on me like – Ow! That, yo!"

Pietro just snickered, Kitty rolled her eyes and Kurt still looked perplexed.

...

Hank was exasperated as he continued to treat Toad's extensive, but not too terrible, injuries. He shook his head, they were bad but not life-threatening, but the Brotherhood were taking it so lightly that he suspected that they really didn't see this as severe at all. If it had been one of his X-men, they'd certainly be in both a great deal more pain, as most of Toad's complaints appeared to be for effect only, and think it much more grievous than these young men. It troubled him greatly; not least because he had seen some of the scars on Todd's too-thin body when he was examining him over the whole sex-change incident not so long ago. He would need to talk to Xavier about it. There was a lot the Brotherhood weren't telling them and some of it was probably rather important to find out if this was any indication of their general welfare.

...

"But Toad must have deserved it, been stealing wallets again or something," rationalised Jean, "Duncan wouldn't just do something like that unprovoked!"

"Oh, but he would, little-miss-perfect," said Pietro, annoyed, she'd seen the state of Toad post-clean-up and yet she still refused to believe it. Even Scott hadn't had any issues there, mind you, he was biased seeing as he clearly wanted to bang the hell out of miss-prim-and-proper over there spouting complete and utter wank from her perfect little lips.

"But he had to, no way four of them would just beat him up to that extent without good reason," she replied hotly. Convinced as usually that she was right.

"Better not let Avalanche or Blob hear you talking like that, they'll not be as well behaved as me when educating you in the error of your current thought pattern," he sniped back. He was surprised at the vehemence of her denial of her pseudo-boyfriend's brutality. She'd actually been pretty decent with Toad over the whole being stuck as a girl thing, but apparently she was blind as a bat with its ear-drums ripped out when it came to Duncan Matthews' true self, "He is a total and utter douche-bag, Jean," he used her name for effect, "Matthew's and his little band of goons have done the same and much worse to poor ickle Toadie-kins many times over. In fact every opportunity they get, so we try not to leave him alone too often. To be honest, we didn't even know how bad it had gotten ourselves until recently and we still probably don't even know the half of it, but Duncan Matthews is bad news girly and he's been whaling on Todd for a long, long time without provocation. 'Sides," he continued, "stealing wallets is totally justified, how else were we supposed to pay the bills? Think about that, rich tits." And with that, he zoomed off somewhere leaving a spluttering Jean and semi-angry, but mostly confused Scott behind. Oh, and a laughing-their-asses-off-at-the-looks-on-Jean-and-Scott's-faces Kitty and Kurt.

...

"We're sorry, we'll never do it again, we promise!" wailed Bobby and Evan together as they fell prostrate at Toad's feet the next morning.

"Uh yeah, sure, OK, yo," he said, making a, they're crazy, eye-movement towards the rest of the occupants of the breakfast table.

"I am sure that you have learnt your lesson, sit down and eat breakfast Evan, Bobby," chuckled Xavier, "Don't you think so Logan?"

"Yeah, Chuck," he said, drinking his coffee, "Yeah I do."

...

AN: Man, that was a long chapter, just started writing and couldn't stop myself. Anyway, Toad has not been found out as yet, Cheetachan. However, discovery becomes a little more of a dangerous possibility next time. Poor Toad, I'm such a meanie.


	10. Chapter 9: Lady Times

Children of Thalidomide

AN: This chapter contains some material not for the squeamish... can't say I didn't warn you.

...

Chapter 9: Lady Times

...

It was a day or two after Toad's run-in with Duncan and his injuries were mostly healed, but he was still feeling pretty crappy and worn down. He awoke to a low, throbbing pain in his belly and an urgent need to vomit. He ran to the bathroom, which was thankfully unoccupied at this hour. Damn, must've been Kitty's cooking last night. He felt terrible, too hot, which was bad for a cool-blooded amphibian like himself. He pressed his forehead against the cool porcelain and groaned. Man his stomach was sore. Maybe he'd just stay in there for a bit.

...

Wanda grumbled and rolled over, pulling the covers further over her head in attempt to go back to sleep. She had been awoken by Toad's rather rapid trip to the bathroom, but had not been quite awoken enough to do more than burrow further beneath her warm blankets. _Stupid frog-boy_, she rolled over and grumbled unintelligibly to herself. She supposed she should go check up on her poorly roommate, but she was resentful of the fact that she had to worry about the stupid little slime at all. Mind you, he wasn't chasing her around quite as much anymore, his mind on other things, which meant his company wasn't quite as unbearable. Plus, he seemed to be washing a lot more since they had started living at the Institute; she had to admit that having a never ending supply of hot water meant that they all showered a lot more. It was sometimes tempting just to skip the cold wash that was all that was left after Pietro had single-handedly used up all the hot water in the Brotherhood Boarding House. Admittedly Wanda herself usually got the rest of the hot water as the boys had learnt the hard way about Wanda and cold showers, but she knew from experience how unpleasant one was. The bathroom wall had never been quite the same again.

She was dragged suddenly from her half-waking musings by a loud scream from the bathroom. She jolted upright and jumped from the bed, running from the room, all guns blazing and ready to kick some arse. Despite her usual protests, she really did worry about the younger boy... What if Magneto had somehow got past Xavier's defences and Wolverine to get to Toad? What if whatever the hell stupid shit that bastard had done to the poor kid hadn't finished doing whatever the hell it was supposed to do? What if despite Beast and Xavier's claims it was actually killing him? Or what if it was finally reversing, but it was going wrong? All these thoughts and more sped through Wanda's head as she made the short dash to the girl's bathroom.

...

Wanda reached the bathroom door and the still screaming Toad to find it locked. OK, probably not Magneto, but something was seriously wrong. She banged on the door urgently, "Open the door Toad, it's OK, it's Wanda, I'm here, come on, just open the door."

She was trying her best to be soothing and reassuring, but she hadn't exactly had much practice. Rogue and Kitty rounded the corner a few moments later, only half-awake, and certainly not happy about being woken up, she rubbed her eyes blearily; "Whaht's wrang?"

"Don't know, but it can't be good," replied Wanda, "C'mon Toad, I don't want to kick in the door but if you don't open it this second, I'll have to!"

"Wait, Wanda, I'll, like, get it," said Kitty phasing through the door and opening it from the inside, "Oh..." she said at the sight that greeted her moments before Wanda and Rogue followed her into the girl's bathroom.

Toad was curled up in a ball next to the toilet, clearly in pain, though not enough for that to be the cause of the screaming... no that would be the very obvious fact that poor Toad was having his first ever period. Not much fun at all; particularly when possibly the three worst people to be dealing with it had found him. Well, OK, not quite the worst... Wolverine, Cyclops and Sabertooth spring instantly to mind... But, you know, being found in that embarrassing state by your sweetheart, a Goth who doesn't do emotions other than anger, another Goth who doesn't do emotions and a Valley girl who doesn't do "Icky", you're not exactly in the best company for this sort of thing. But, at least they were girls and that was better than nothing, right?

Rogue was, surprisingly, the first to make a move, "Heyah kiddo, theah, theah, its alraight, you'll be fahne."

"Poor Toad, ick, like, I'll go get Storm," said Kitty as she ran off in search of the X-Mansion's resident housemother (other than Logan that is); she phased through the wall, not even bothering to use the door in her haste. 'Ick' hardly covered the situation really, but it was pretty good of Kitty to not freak out completely and actually do something useful. Rogue continued to awkwardly pat Toad's shoulder and make soothing noises towards the now sniffling girl-boy. Wanda sighed and shook her head, sitting down heavily on the cold-tile floor on Toad's other side, she pulled his head into her lap and silently thinking, _I can't believe I'm doing this_, began to stroke his hair and tell him it would be alright. This whole fucked-up mess was getting weirder and weirder by the second. What the hell had that awful man that she was far from proud to call a father been trying to achieve this time? What the fuck could anyone gain from making a poor, innocent, if somewhat hygienically-challenged 16-year-old? OK, so Toad was hardly what you might call innocent in the traditional sense, none of the Brotherhood was; circumstances had prevented all of them from having a decent childhood in one way or another. Heck, a fair amount of the X-men could say the same thing. Life was so bloody shitting unfair sometimes.

...

Storm and Kitty returned in short order and the weather witch assessed the situation quickly, she took Kitty, Rogue and Wanda outside, after getting Toad to uncurl himself and sit upright against the wall. "Alright girls, I don't believe I shall need to tell you to keep this quiet, we do not wish to distress poor Todd further, now if one of you would be good enough to go and get a hot water bottle and some painkillers and, perhaps Wanda, would like to get some clothes for Todd and bring them here?"

"OK," and with that Wanda went to get Toad some clothes and Kitty and Rogue went to get some painkillers and a hot water bottle respectively. Storm returned to the bathroom and the slightly less distressed but still thoroughly miserable Toad.

"The best thing to start you off with is these," said Ororo, once Toad was dressed, opening up a pack of sanitary towels, "You place the liner in your underpants like this and fold the little wings like this. You'll have to change them a couple of times a day. When you do, put them in the bin wrapped in a diaper bag – they're under the sink – don't flush them down the toilet, it blocks the drains. Now you try, I'll turn around." She could hear fumbling and mumbling as Toad did as instructed.

"Ready, you can turn around now, yo," said a sullen Toad.

"These are the best for the first few times, but there are other products available for you to try out next time..." Storm began.

"You think there's gonna be a next time, yo?" wailed Toad cradling his face in his hands in despair.

"Now Todd, what is happening to you is perfectly normal and natural for a girl your age and-" Storm was cut off by very pissed off and unwell Toad. He was, understandably, not taking this most recent manifestation of his mutation particularly well.

"Cut the crap lady, this ain't natural at all and I know all about the birds and the bees from health class anyway, had enough of the joys of womanhood from Wanda's Pmsing without having to experience any of those 'joys' myself; but this? It's fucked up is what it is, yo," he snarled, startling the older woman, "It's bad enough that because of some stupid messed up genetic quirk I gotta be fucking butt-ugly toad, but at least that was natural enough for me; don't know what you're missing if you ain't never been normal, yo... but this, this is just some seriously fucked up shit. At least I was a butt-ugly guy-toad, I knew how to handle myself then, but now, now I got this thing, this stupid freaky, scary thing happening to me that means I have boobs I shouldn't have and bits I shouldn't have and feelings I shouldn't have and I can probably have babies in a way I was never expecting to have to – not that anyone'd want to have kids with me anyway – and they'd probably be freaky little bastards like me, but worse 'cause I ain't even normal by my regular standards. And I ain't even really me anymore, not that I was much of a prize as a dude, but at least I knew where I stood and, shit, man it's just so unfair, why is it all happening to me?" and with that Toad ran from the bathroom, swiping at his hysterical tears and leaving a speechless Storm in his wake.

"Leave him, Ororo," said the Professor's voice in her head, "Toad just needs a little time to himself to adjust."

"Well, if you are sure, Charles..."

"Yes, I believe I am."

...

AN: I apologise for the extreme delay in getting this out but this chapter was pretty hard to write, accompanied by being on work experience for the last 5-weeks (during which time I had minimal internet access if at all) which kept me too busy to write much at all. I was going to make this chapter a lot longer, but I thought you'd waited long enough and have decided to break it into two parts as it had a fairly natural break anyway. You'll get the next chapter reasonably soon, I hope, as I have it pretty much all planned out. Hope you've all been having a great summer!


	11. Chapter 10: Practical Jokers Part 1

Children of Thalidomide

AN: Apologies for the delay in this chapter, but I sort of almost died a little bit, so, um, yes, back to irregular scheduling now that I've caught up with the dissertation work I was behind on from, yeah, that... Still not exactly well, but mostly breathing, so back on track fairly soon I hope. Sorry this is much shorter than I would've liked, but after I've done a bit more coursework, I'll get part two out for you. Sorry, but until my health is better, this has to take a bit of a backseat. It's nothing serious really and I will get better, it's just going to take quite a lot of time I'm afraid.

...

Chapter 10: Practical Jokers, or, In Which Jamie is Awesome and Toad Makes New Friends Part 1

...

James Arthur 'Jamie' Madrox contemplated the pile of duvets that was currently channel surfing from the open doorway of the Rec room with cautious interest. He wasn't sure if it was entirely wise to venture into the room himself or if it would be more sensible to send one of his dupes in first to gauge the occupant of the room's mood. Girls were scary to the 12-almost-13-year-old, particularly mutant girls... particularly mutant girls on that time of the month... Particularly this mutant girl who wasn't even really a girl, not really. He didn't exactly have much real first-hand experience of dealing with the Brotherhood, none of the 'New' Recruits – not that many of them were really that new anymore – did, but he'd heard a lot of stories from the older X-men and generally they weren't especially glowing reports... but still, he was bored and lonely and figured that Toad probably was too. Well, was he a man or a mouse, best to get this over with fast, like ripping off an old band-aid. He took a steadying breath and steeled himself before entering the Toad's lair.

...

Toad was bored, really, really bored. Understandably, Xavier had allowed him to stay home from school for the duration of his, ah, _women's troubles_... but after a morning of daytime television – and there really was nothing on – he was excruciatingly and exquisitely bored. Bored, bored, bored, bored out of his mind. Bored out of his skull. Bored, bored, bored and doubly, triply, quadrupley bored. He groaned and flung the remote moodily to the floor, settling on some inane music station pumping out popular beats for the disaffected masses. He clutched the hot water bottle to his tender middle and burrowed sulkily beneath the pile of blankets.

It was then he heard the cautious, "Ah-hem," from the doorway, he looked up grumpily, his tousled head poking back out of his little pillow fort on the sofa, "I have some really good movies with lots of explosions and car chases and things if you wanna watch them?" afforded Jamie sheepishly, still unsure of the reaction he'd receive.

"Sure dawg, why not, ain't like there's anything else to do round this joint," Toad conceded, "How come you ain't at school anyhow, yo?"

"My powers aren't exactly what you might call, stable..." offered Jamie rubbing the back of his neck, "Imagine bumping into someone in the hallway and splitting into two and two again and again like some sort of giant mytosis-ing amoeba, then imagine that happening fifteen or so times in the space of one hallway, not exactly keeping to the whole no using your powers at school thing on the down low really, is it?"

"Man dawg, that sucks," Toad sucked in air through his yellowed, crooked teeth and smiled at the younger boy standing awkwardly in front of him, "Well, what about those action flicks you was talking about, yo?"

Jamie grinned madly as Toad scootched up, making room for him on the sofa, he was happy to be accepted by one of the older kids, not ignored and left out like usual for being too much of a 'baby', "Sure!" he said sending out a dupe who added on his way up the stairs, "I'll get them!" as the real Jamie bounced happily into the space Toad had made for him.

"So what do you do around here all day when the other X-geeks are at school, yo?" asked Toad popping some pretzels into his mouth as the credits rolled on the second movie the pair had watched so far.

"Well, mostly I'm home schooled, I have classes with Hank and Mr. Logan and Ms. Munro and the Professor when they're not busy and I'm left stuff to study when they are. Other times I watch films or play videogames, though that's less fun on your own," then he grinned, "Sometimes though I think up really good pranks to play on the older kids. If it's a really good idea then Kurt and Bobby sometimes help pull it with me or they let me help with one of their pranks, it's brilliant!"

"Hell, this day's looking better already," smirked Toad as the two boys started trading stories of the best pranks they'd ever pulled on their teammates and sundry.

...

Cyclops' first clue that something was wrong should have been how quiet the Institute was despite the fact that both Jaime and Toad – both known troublemakers in their own right – were sitting quite, quite still on the Rec room sofa. The fact that they weren't immediately and obviously doing something stupid and childish like playing video games or arm wrestling to determine who got to watch which show should have tipped him off to the fact that this innocent, good little boys quietly watching television act was just that, an act. Of course he wasn't to know that the two kids (for that's exactly what the young mutants were, kids) had through the course of the day made fast friends and bonded through a mutual love of pranking, a shared loneliness and a sense of always being the baby of their specific team, left out and put-upon. He simply thought that the two were wary of each other and trying to remain civil to each other without tearing the room apart. The mere fact that the whole of the Rec room and most of the kitchen was not in some sort of uproar should have alerted him to the atmosphere of up-to-no-good-ness simply hanging in the air around the two youngsters; as should the secret grin and quick, imperceptible nod they shared as he walked through the door. Scott Summers simply was just that guileless...

...

The sheer mayhem that followed would be talked about for weeks at the X-mansion and fondly (and not so fondly in other cases) remarked upon many months hence whenever certain parties needed a reminded about stick up certain arses, much to Scott's chagrin and to the amusement of many others. Of course the two youngest mutants at the Institute got into a serious amount of trouble, but it cemented their friendship to no end and allowed them to be fully accepted into the fold of major practical joke aficionados Bobby 'Iceman' Drake and, much more significantly and importantly in later days, paved the way into Nightcrawler's affections and therefore, gained their acceptance by his special circle of friends. Hell, Rogue enjoyed a good practical joke pulled on the right person as much as the next guy, right? She might just take one or two more pains to hide it from everyone...


	12. Chapter 11: Practical Jokers Part 2

Children of Thalidomide

AN: I am sorry this took so long, I've been a lot sicker for a lot longer than I thought I'd be and have now had to take a break from uni. Haven't really felt like writing much. This is really just the end of the last chapter, so it's not long, I should probably just amalgamate them.

...

Chapter 11: Pranksters For Life, or, In Which Jamie is Awesome and Toad Makes New Friends Part 2

...

"You got the idea from Die Hard? Jeeze, man, that was so classic," laughed Bobby, slapping his thigh as the four mischief-makers and practical jokers extraordinaire were fondly reminiscing over yesterday's events.

"Ya, das vas amazing vhen the computer chair vith the bucket and..." the glare from Scott effectively silenced Kurt, mid-sentence, "Ah, sorry man, ve did not see you there." He rubbed the back of his neck and Cyclops stonily exited the room he had so recently entered.

"Too bad we're pretty much grounded for about 20-bajillion years and we've got extra Danger Room sessions with Wolverine," said Jamie.

"Ouch man," said Bobby, "Though it's starting next week at least, got some time to prepare yourselves for it."

"Suspended sentence," replied Jaime.

"Sometimes being a girl has its perks, yo..." Toad said thinly, making a joke out of the situation and whilst they all laughed, Kurt at least didn't find the situation the least bit funny and was beginning to wonder how he could make things better for the poor kid. A wonderful and dangerous thought crossed his fuzzy little mind when he saw the way describing the epic prank made Todd laugh. Yes, they would just have to start up a whole new reign of specialised terror that only four such practical jokers as they could wreak upon the institute...

Things were going to get very interesting indeed around here, and soon. Of course everyone was still on high alert, so it would have to wait a little while. Preferably after Toad and Jamie's punishment was over. There was no harm in planning ahead, however, now was there?

"I haff an idea..." Kurt smirked evilly as only he could with his flashing yellow eyes and sharp, canine fangs. Oh yes, this was going to be very, very good.

...

"Are you sure that letting those four alone is the best idea, Chuck?" asked Wolverine, taking a puff from his smelly cigar as he lounged against the porch railing.

Xavier laughed, "I believe it's just what Todd needs to take his mind off other things."

"Whatever you say Chuck," he took a longer, more thoughtful draw this time.

"Just make sure that their punishment will make them think twice about doing anything really dangerous, Logan."

"That I will," he grinned ferally, "That I will."


End file.
